DarwinAI, a Waterloo, Canada startup creating next-generation technologies for Artificial Intelligence development, announced that the company’s Generative Synthesis platform – when used with Intel technology and optimizations – generated neural networks with a 16.3X improvement in image classification inference performance. Intel shared the optimization results in a recently published solution brief.

“The complexity of deep neural networks makes them a challenge to build, run and use, especially in edge-based scenarios such as autonomous vehicles and mobile devices where power and computational resources are limited,” said Sheldon Fernandez, CEO of DarwinAI. “Our Generative Synthesis platform is a key technology in enabling AI at the edge – a fact bolstered and validated by Intel’s solution brief.”

DarwinAI and Intel Optimizations Deliver As Much As 16.3X Performance Increase

Intel engineers ran image classification
performance tests with ResNet50 and NASNet, two popular neural networks, using
Intel Optimizations for TensorFlow with Intel Math Kernel Library (Intel MKL
and Intel MKL-DNN). The results: for ResetNet50, Darwin’s Generative Synthesis
platform combined with Intel’s optimizations delivered a 16.3X improvement in
inference speed over baseline measurements on an Intel Xeon Platinum 8153
processor. Meanwhile, for NASNet, the
DarwinAI-Intel combination yielded a 9.6X improvement in inference speed on the
same hardware.

DarwinAI’s Generative Synthesis platform uses AI itself to examine and learn from a neural network in order to construct new highly compact versions without sacrificing functional accuracy. This patented “AI building AI” technology dramatically reduces the size, complexity and guesswork in designing efficient, high-performance deep learning solutions. This unique method of understanding also facilitates “explainable” deep learning — the ability to understand why a network makes the decisions it does.

The benefits of DarwinAI’s Generative
Synthesis technology include:

Faster, smaller models for deploying AI at the edge

Accelerated design through human-machine collaboration

AI-powered profiling tools that identify performance
bottlenecks

“Root cause analysis” features via the platform’s AI-powered
explainability tools — specifically,
the ability to identify errors and biases in the data, and key factors most
influencing a particular decision

DarwinAI is a member of the Intel AI Builders Program, an ecosystem of industry-leading independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators (SIs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and enterprise end users, which have a shared mission to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across Intel platforms. Download the solution brief HERE.

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